Parliamentary democracy and the U.S. system differ greatly. It’s no small thing that across the pond the Prime Minister does not appear on any national ballot. The Prime Minister (Boris Johnson), one of 500 Members of Parliament, answers to: (a) his constituents in Uxbridge and South Ruislip, in West London; and (b) the Conservative Party, which can replace him as its leader.

Here, of course, we the people elect our national leader, Donald Trump.* He leads his party and our nation, but he holds office for a fixed term, subject only to: (a) impeachment and conviction; (b) death or incapacity; and (c) the voters on November 3, 2020. And, because of his appeal

Happy Presidents’ Day. Not so much in Tucson / Pima County. Here, we let the kiddies out of school to celebrate the rodeo later this week. A Tucson thing! And, although with closed courts Rubin & Bernstein shuttered its office, LB and I worked and encountered plenty of professional offices, open for business and fully staffed. (Staff: no rodeo days for you, and we need to examine holiday policies.)

Le meglio è l’inimico del bene­—the best is the enemy of the good—gets credited to Francois-Marie Arouet aka Voltaire often but, in fact, it’s an old Italian proverb he cited in his Dictionnaire Philosophique, first published in 1764. Sadly, it fits our times, too well!

The Ds control the House of Representatives, beginning on January 3, 2019. The House elects a Speaker, who can be a Congressperson or not, although every speaker has been a member of the House of Representatives.

The Ds will have a solid majority, once the remaining races get resolved. Still, there’s doubt about whether Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi will serve as Speaker.

You’re So Vain by Carly Simon—every thinking man’s “you know what” (13, 9, 12, 6, and you figure it out)—includes in its third stanza the following words:

Then you flew your Lear jet to Nova Scotia, to see the total eclipse of the sun.

So we had a total eclipse of the sun on August 21, 2017, in the United States of America. No, Donald Trump gets no credit for it. And when Hari Sreenivasan mentioned on the NewsHour last week that the total eclipse was scheduled for Monday, I thought he might have “special knowledge” about end times. Maybe I’d be “done for” in South Carolina.

“You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view […] until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.” — Atticus Finch, from Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird

President Barack Obama shared “fellow American” Atticus Finch’s words in his farewell address on January 10. He used them to tell us our hearts must change. “For blacks and other minority groups,” he said, “it means tying our own very real struggles for justice to the challenges that a lot of people in this country face—not only the refugee, or the immigrant, or the rural poor, or the transgender American, but also the middle-aged white

Mr. Trump is a billionaire real estate developer. He did it the easy way. Rich daddy. Borrowed money. Insider favors. Establishment all the way! So why did he decide to run against the Establishment that has offered him so much? Here’s my theory.

Donald Trump: wrong man, always! So, so much is so, so wrong about the notion of Donald J. Trump as President of the United States. He’s a bad, bad man. Ironically, though, even if he was a good, good man his raison d’etre disqualifies him for the job.

Donald Trump spews forth every day. He’s all over the map on everything, but he’s constant about one thing: he’s the outsider who will drain the swamp. He’ll be unpredictable, and different. The successful businessman. Not politically correct.

Ignore, please, all of the stuff we know about Mr. Trump. His lack of knowledge about and interest in policy matters. His claims that he knows more than everyone else. (“I know more

My 21,556 days here include four significant “I remember where I was when …” events. I was just six on 11/22/1963, almost 12 on 7/20/1969 (when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon), and three days shy of 44 on 9/11/2001. Finally, there’s April 19, 1995, the day on which Timothy McVeigh and co-conspirators toppled the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. The bombing killed 168 people (including 19 children), injured many hundreds, and caused $600M+ in damages.

April 19, 1995 stands out for me because of the confluence of three events. There was the bombing. And in my little world,

Conway: Donald Trump has been incredibly generous over the course of his life.

Camerota: With his own money?

Conway: With his own money, and his foundation’s money – which is his money.

Where do I begin? So many falsehoods in Ms. Conway’s 24 words.

Let’s start with the fact that for almost 20 years I served on and chaired nonprofit boards. I have also raised a few hundred thousand dollars for charities. Done lots of work on fund development and board governance issues. Represented several nonprofit entities. And

The Curator has graciously donated most of his space this week to demonstrating the fraudulent essence of Donald Trump. Here goes:

Donald Trump is No Christian. Peter Wehner’s piece in the July 5 New York Times, The Theology of Donald Trump, takes care of the religious issue with knowledge and grace. Mr. Wehner notes the contrast between Mr. Trump’s focus on worldly success and power, and Christian values. The outcome is not pretty for Mr. Trump or those who preach values and follow him. Inauthenticity abounds!